When blood is collected for blood donation from a human donor, the blood is collected in a flexible plastics bag. Part of the donated blood is also collected in a number of separate sample tubes. The purpose of these separate samples is to enable various tests for blood typing and blood borne diseases or defects to be carried out separately from the blood in the main collection bag.
The main collection bag, any satellite bags and all associated samples are labelled with the same unique identifier so that the various items of blood may traced when they are separated and samples tested in due course. Typically these tests and processes are carried out away from the location where the blood is donated and collected. This may be in a separate part of the same building or may be in a different building totally.
Existing blood and blood component collection containers do not provide a way to securely keep the sample tubes together and retained with the bag. Further, whilst methods exist to hold sample tubes prior and after use, there are no systems that are usable throughout the collection process, inclusive of before and after collection, during collection and during transport to the final destination.
When the blood is collected, the separate sample tubes may be gathered by use of one or more rubber bands or the like, both to keep the sample tubes together and to attach the tubes to the bag. Some bags have peripheral walls with slots into which sample tubes may be inserted as an alternative. The problem with use of such methods to attach the sample tubes to the bag is that they are not very secure. Whilst each sample tube is labelled with a unique identifier that associates the blood sample with the main blood collection, it remains preferable if all sample tubes and the bag are additionally kept together during the collection process in order to prevent misplacement, mix-up or other loss. With current methods, sample tubes may become separated from the respective bag. Collecting loose sample tubes is time consuming. There also exists the risk that one or more sample tubes may be dropped or broken when attaching them to, or removing them from, the bag or rubber band. If a sample tube breaks, this may cause problems with contamination and completion of required blood tests.
Further, generally, when taking the blood samples, there is nowhere to store or hold each tube after it has been filled with blood whilst another tube is being filled. Systems have been proposed that use wrist straps or “bum bags” to hold sample tubes before and after filling. However, these do not provide a solution to the need to securely keep the sample tubes together or to retain the sample tubes with the collection bag to prevent sample tube mix-up, and are not practicable when a user may collect blood from many different donors during the day.
Once blood is collected, there may exist a need to agitate a portion of the sample tubes, while not agitating the balance. Current methods of keeping sample tubes together using rubber bands, or inserting sample tubes into peripheral slots on the bags, do not facilitate easy agitation of individual sample tubes. Post-collection, the bags and sample tubes may be separated or may be together and placed in a large cooled or refrigerated container for transport to another location, where the bags and sample tubes are processed.
The above problems relating to maintaining sample tubes together are also applicable to pathology, where blood is also collected in sample tubes from a patient for pathology purposes, rather than for blood donation purposes. There is a need to easily retain pathology sample tubes together, whether during one or more of the collection, transport or subsequent processing stages.